Girl Scout Cub Reporter

Below is an article Cadette Girl Scout, Savannah, from Troop 7098 in Auburn wrote and had published in the Opelika-Auburn newspaper. Savannah is a cub reporter for the newspaper. She will have articles on the sea turtles every week until they are due to hatch.

The Journey Of An Alabama Sea Turtle

I went to Gulf Shores with my family for summer vacation. We were tired from the four hour drive on Sunday. We decided to hang out with our neighbors by the pool. Normally, we would have been on the beach that evening looking for crabs. Little did we know that a rare sea turtle had swum ashore to lay its eggs in the canopy right next to ours. Early Monday morning as my Mimi and Papa Ronny walked the beach they saw the Bon Secour Wildlife Rescue people examining what they believed to be where a sea turtle had come and laid its eggs. Sure enough, as they began to dig the Bon Secour Wildlife Rescue people found 128 round eggs in the shape of ping-pong balls. They believe that the turtle that laid the eggs is an endangered species called the Kemp Ridley sea turtle. There are only 1,000 females that are known left of this species. The Bon Secour Wildlife Rescue people carefully moved the eggs to a safer spot. They were only able to move 126 because two of the eggs were broken. The area on the beach where the eggs have been moved is now posted. There is a $100,000 fine and time in jail if the eggs are harmed in any way. If you would like to follow or adopt this nest you can go to: http://www.alabamaseaturtles.com and visit the nesting season statistics. The ID number is C-1 and the date found is 6/9/08 on West Beach 2. I will continue to have weekly follow-ups on this sea turtle and will have more interesting information on the Kemp Ridley sea turtle.